During and after various surgical procedures and while recovering from injury, pressure application must be limited at the injured and/or surgical site. It is often inconvenient and difficult to limit the application of pressure. This is particularly true following cosmetic enhancement surgeries, such as, for example, body mass augmentations such as buttocks augmentation, breast enhancement, breast reconstruction, and facial reconstruction.
Body mass augmentation such as buttocks augmentation is a procedure of growing popularity. Whether a result of rapid and substantial weight loss following, for example, bariatric surgery, or due to genetics or increasing age, many individuals are unhappy with the firmness and shape of bodily features such as their buttocks. A body's fat, muscles, and other soft tissues can diminish following dramatic weight loss or during the aging process, affecting the body's appearance. For example, the body's buttocks may flatten, spread, and/or sag. Such characteristics are treated during buttocks augmentation through insertion of an implant, such as a silicone implant, or injection of autologous fat into the desired area. In procedures utilizing autologous fat, an individual's fat is removed from a location of accumulated fat, such as from the abdomen, thighs, arms, back, or above the hips via a syringe or liposuction techniques; the fat is then processed and injected into the desired area of augmentation.
Following such a procedure, there is a significant risk that application of pressure on or about the area of enhancement will lead to reconfiguration of the implanted mass, leading to a cosmetically unacceptable result. Accordingly, the patient is advised to avoid applying pressure onto the area of enhancement for at least three weeks. Some patients may be instructed to avoid such pressure application for as many as three months or more. Currently, little exists to help patients comply with these instructions. During this recovery time, back sleepers may have to sleep on their stomach or sides. Patients are often cautioned to avoid sitting altogether.
If a patient does not adhere to these instructions, the consequences can be severe. As noted above, if sufficient pressure is applied to an augmented site for a long enough period, a displacement of the injected fat will occur, leading to flattening or other undesirable reshaping of the augmented area. Additionally, prolonged pressure application is believed to increase a body's reabsorption of the injected fat, thus reducing the effectiveness of the procedure and the size of a patient's augmented body part.